In the late 1950's Dr. Bernard Vonnegut, after having invented the silver-iodide flare in 1948 that was used for cloud seeding, and still is, almost 60 years later, pioneered ionization technology by conducting experiments that produced unipolar corona effect ions using a direct current power supply feeding high voltage to a long, thin wire electrically isolated from ground. He was able to detect ions as far as 10 miles away from his ionization station(1). Vonnegut was attempting to discover what artificial ionization's effect would be on weather modification. Lacking modem instrumentation, he was unable to measure significant effects
The present invention is based, in part, on recent atmospheric physics research that has established that natural ions are a catalyst that will allow more particles to be generated via by lowering nucleation barriers and electrically charging new or existing particles in suspension in the atmosphere (aerosols, causing them to grow more aggressively. The larger mass of the growing aerosols increases their vertical velocity due to gravitational pull, ultimately depositing these aerosols to ground and thus removing them from the atmosphere.
Based on recent physics research and on Vonnegut's efforts, an attempt was made to see if artificially generated, direct current, corona effect (CE), ionization would act in much the same way as cosmic ray ionization, with some differences that might make unipolar CE ions more effective. Experiments show that use of the ionization station of the present invention significantly reduces the atmospheric aerosol counts.
Recent Ion-Aerosol Research
Several prominent atmospheric physicists in Europe and in the United States have published a number of papers over the last 10 years that establish a link between naturally occurring ionization and aerosol nucleation and growth.
Researchers started getting reliable satellite imagery of the Earth's surface about a decade ago. This imagery lead a Swedish research team to study the intensity of the flux of galactic cosmic rays (GCR) comparing it to images of Earth's cloud cover and they positively correlated GCR flux intensity to the Earth's cloud cover(2). Later British and American scientists refined that correlation specifically to low cloud cover(3,4).
Natural atmospheric ionization is ubiquitous. Ion pairs are continually produced in the atmosphere by radiolysis of air molecules, which is mainly caused by Galactic Cosmic Rays (GCR), radon isotopes and terrestrial gamma radiation. The ions produced are rarely single species but clusters of water molecules around a central ion(5).
The generation or nucleation process is described as the process whereby two or more molecules, one of them being water, merge to form a particle in suspension, or aerosol. It is now evident that cosmic ray ionization is linked to lowering nucleation barriers, thus forming ultrafine aerosols, some of which can become Cloud Condensation Nuclei (CCN)(3).
Nucleation is theoretically accomplished through four mechanisms:
                1. Binary Nucleation: The water molecule reacts with any other molecule, such as ammonium, hydrochloric acid, nitric acid, etc.        2. Ternary Nucleation: The water molecule reacts with two other molecules, which can be organic or inorganic        3. Ion Induced Nucleation: The water molecule reacts with another organic or inorganic molecule plus an ion        4. Ion Mediated Nucleation: The water molecule reacts with two or more electrically charged organic or inorganic molecules. This is called “mediated” because the ions have previously electrically charged the nucleating molecules.        
The two primary nucleation mechanisms that have been used to explain the observed nucleation events occurring in Earth's atmosphere are ternary nucleation and, preferentially, ion mediated nucleation(6).
Aerosols, once formed, grow through one or more of several processes:                1. Coagulation—The particle grows by attachment of molecules (ligands) onto the aerosol by agglomeration.        2. Condensation—Water molecules can condense on an aerosol, changing phase from gaseous to liquid and releasing latent heat. The aerosol grows as it acquires water molecules, adding to its diameter and mass. The charged aerosols are more effective in inducing condensation than uncharged ones because polar molecules have an enhanced condensation rate. Calculations show that this growth rate for charged particles is greater by a factor of at least 2 than it is for uncharged particles, and since a 5 nanometer (nm=1×10−9 meter) particle's coagulation loss rate is 1 1/20th that of a 1 nm particle, it is an important factor in determining the early survival rate of aerosol(3).        3. Scavenging: The process whereby a cloud droplet collects an aerosol. If the aerosol is charged, the charge transfers to the droplet. The charged droplet will be further attracted to charged aerosols.        4. Electroscavenging: When a cloud droplet reaches the clear air—cloud boundary it often evaporates, leaving behind all its charge to the nucleus as well as coatings of sulfate, pollutants and organic compounds that the droplet absorbed while in the cloud. Charged evaporation nuclei enhance collection by droplets because of their coatings and because they create an image charge on the droplet. Even if the droplet is charged with the same polarity as the nucleus, the image charge will greatly enhance the possibility of attachment. Although there is a long-range repulsion between charges of the same sign, the flow carries particles in the 0.1 μm to 1 μm range against that repulsion close to a cloud droplet, so that the short range attractive force due to the attraction between the charge of the particle and the image charge it induces in the droplet ensures particle collection(7).        5. Collision—Coalescence: This mechanism applies to water droplets (very large aerosols) as they fall to ground, colliding with other droplets. Larger drops fall faster than smaller drops, so they sometimes collide. However, the air pressure of the larger, faster falling drop will, even if it is in a collision course with a smaller drop, may make the smaller drop go around the larger one and prevent collision. This is the same aerodynamic principle that causes most insects to avoid collision with an oncoming car, because the elevated air pressure surrounding the car will propel the insect away from the car. The collision efficiency of charged aerosol-droplet is increased by thirty-fold for aerosol carrying large (>50) elementary charges(7). It is possible that charged droplets collide with larger falling droplets by inducing the same type of image charge over and over again until a raindrop is formed, given a sufficiently large elementary charge.        
Recent work by Yu and Turco [2000] demonstrates that charged molecular clusters, condensing around natural air ions, can grow significantly faster than corresponding neutral clusters and can thus preferentially achieve stable, observable sizes(8). Stable charged molecular clusters resulting from water vapor condensation and coagulation growth can survive long after nucleation. Simulations reveal that a 25% increase in ionizing rate leads to a 7-9% increase in concentrations of 3 and 10 nm particles 8 hours after nucleation(9).
Three specific GCR ionization processes are now theoretically established: 1) increases in the rates of aerosol coagulation, 2) lowered aerosol nucleation barriers, and 3) removal of particles by water droplets in clouds(9). GCR ionization lowers nucleation barriers, allowing an ion to attach to small water molecule clusters, forming a “small ion” or the formation of more aerosols and promoting early charged particle growth into the Aitken range. There is a substantially high probability that some of the charged particles grow to the 100 nm range and beyond to become CCN. There is also evidence that electrically charged aerosols are more efficiently scavenged by cloud droplets, some of which evaporate producing evaporation aerosols, which are very effective ice formation nuclei.
In general terms, some ions will form aerosols by growing to “small ions” and then by coagulation and condensation, others will charge existing aerosols that will, again, grow by condensation and coagulation to become CCN and beyond. Still others will charge pollution aerosols and this will clean the atmosphere through scavenging(9).
The conclusion is that natural ionization:                a. lowers nucleation barriers, generating a larger supply of fresh aerosols        b. produces more aggressive aerosol growth through one or more of the growth mechanisms as discussed, and,        c. helps clean the atmosphere by increasing the occurrence rate of scavenging.        
While it is true that the production of GCR ions is asymmetrical, it is also true that ion recombination (neutralization of charge due to attachment of ions of opposite polarity) produces a significant loss of electrical charge. Ionization from radioactive sources (radon or gamma ray) is almost symmetrical and, therefore, most of the charge induced by this type of ionization is lost by ion recombination.
On the other hand, CE ionization is unipolar, either positive or negative, but not both. Therefore, CE ions will repulse each other and not recombine. That means that every ion broadcast into the atmosphere by CE will be available to either nucleate and form an aerosol or else attach to an existing aerosol, electrically charging that aerosol.
Additionally, CE ions have been deemed to be hygroscopic(10) which would further contribute to induce aggressive condensation in electrically charged aerosols.
Accordingly, corona effect ionization will produce three distinct mechanisms for removing aerosols from the atmosphere by depositing them to ground:
Gravitation: Increased nucleation and aggressive growth aerosols through coagulation and condensation, which will cause aerosol deposition to ground by the increased gravitational pull caused by the aerosol's increase in mass,                1. Scavenging: This mechanism will deposit pollution aerosols to ground by attachment to water droplets, and,        2. Electrical Attraction/Repulsion: Aerosols with a positive electric charge will deposit due to electrical attraction of the ground, which is negatively charged. The opposite is also true: if the aerosol's electrical charge is negative, it will be repelled by the ground's negative charge.        